The oil is applied to every inch of the body. It is designed to prevent your opponent getting any sort of grip on you as you grapple. To win you need to flip your opponent onto his back. Fit guys wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, oiled up and wrestling.

It seems to be an accepted tactic to reach inside the shorts and get a grip on the crotch . Surely there’s an argument to be made for ditching the shorts and wrestling naked?

There’s no denying that part of the appeal of Turkish Oil Wrestling is that you can project all sorts of homoerotic fantasies onto what is actually a very traditional, serious, and culturally significant sport.

To be honest, the same could pretty much be said about a lot of sports. Rugby, water polo, hammer throw, bobsled …

There’s a lot of sports that I can watch for hours without having any understanding of the rules or any real emotional investment in the outcome.